May
22nd
2017
Points of Canon: S1x11 - Winter Wrap Up · 6:23pm May 22nd, 2017
Let’s write up another one. It’s been so important to the lore, they deliberately put it out of order, after all – at least, Lauren Faust is on record saying just that.
- That telescope I first noticed in Bridle Gossip is still here.
- Spike wakes up asking for “Mommy” and pretty unambiguously says “You’re not mommy” when he recognizes Twilight. Well, one thing about their relationship is settled… but whom would he call “mommy,” when he spent most of his early childhood next to Twilight, and Twilight spent that period in a boarding school? She probably had to go back home for summer, so – would Twilight Velvet be that “mommy,” or did she get to toss Spike back to Celestia?
- Twilight has prepared and carefully set out three scarves, a saddle, and what looks like rubber boots, four of them. A checklist on the wall contains scarf, saddle, boots and Spike, in color-coded icons. It’s particularly amusing that she abandons everything on that list once she actually goes out, except Spike, whose checkbox on the checklist means he is refusing to get up. It’s also notable that she only wears one scarf. One more is probably for Spike, but the third has to be the backup.
- This is also the only time Twilight wears anything resembling a saddle that I remember, beside the torture-by-dress-up scene in Friendship is Magic.
1. Also notice that the transcript in the wiki is wrong, it says ‘they.’
“Who cleans up winter? Don’t they just use magic to change the seasons like we do in Canterlot?” Notice the “we.”1 Spike definitely considers himself a Canterlot resident.
- Twilight has problems wearing the saddle. Looks like she really doesn’t wear them often, but the question is, why did she decide to do it this time at all, because nobody else is wearing one for the entire episode, they all have those vests.
- One of the three scarves goes missing while Twilight is dressing up, but then mysteriously reappears. The night scene outside the Golden Oaks library does not have any snow in it, and the wasp nest is still there. This was put together in a hurry. :) Unless the cold open scene happens in autumn and Twilight isn’t just a few hours, but a few months early. In which case ponies do hibernate in winter, and she just woke the next day after Hearth’s Warming instead of a month afterwards.
- Twilight states that the team vests were designed by Rarity.
- The Canterlot Friends are out and about, of course.
- Mayor Mare says “all of you have your vests,” but it’s not true, and not just because Twilight still doesn’t – a few more ponies in the crowd don’t either.
- Applejack is heading the plant team, – at least, she’s the one waving while Mayor Mare says “find your team leader,” and is wearing a leg band – but Fluttershy does not appear to be leading the animal team for some reason, the pony in the tan vest with a leg band is Amethyst Star. Rainbow Dash is leading the weather team.
- “Three months of winter coolness.” Everybody knows this line, but I can’t not write it up, can I.
- One of the things the pegasi do to move the clouds is blowing on them. This one might be an allegory though, after all, it is done the song…
- Why exactly are they plowing snow with turn-plows?…
- The full list of eco-management activities seen or mentioned includes: Guiding migratory birds, rousing hibernating animals, snow cloud removal, building new nests and cleaning old ones, snow removal and controlled melting, ice cutting, and seed planting.
2. The swimming kind, surprisingly.
Animals definitely observed hibernating are lab mice, squirrels, rabbits, hedgehogs, porcupines, snakes, bats, skunks. The jury is out on bees/wasps. Notice that our rabbits, skunks and porcupines do not hibernate, and snakes only kinda-hibernate. Other animals seen but not observed hibernating are weasels, turtles2, and fish.
- Twilight offers to help clear out the clouds, and abandons the idea because of not having wings. I find it probable she could have used magic to do it, though.
- Spike falls asleep in a bush that mysteriously has green leaves already. Could be some species of evergreen bush, are those a thing?
- Rarity is not using magic to make nests. That’s quite some manual dexterity skill for a unicorn who would have no reason to develop any.
- Spike suggests birds can use the nest Twilight made as an outhouse. Outhouses are a thing.
- Pinkie skates and Twilight says she’s the best skater she’s ever seen. Considering Pinkie is shown doing rather extreme things as usual, I expect Twilight is telling the truth.
- Pinkie mentions she has been skating since early childhood, but where? I don’t remember any suitable bodies of water next to the rock farm, and rock farming fields have to really suck for making ice rinks on.
- Twilight mentions that Ponyville has “quite a few” lakes, though we know of at most two.
- Twilight is ridiculously bad at skating for someone with four legs.
- Twilight claims to be good with little animals, though we pretty much never see her involved with them. She is quite afraid of snakes, though.
- I’m not sure if these are bees or wasps chasing Twilight, so I can’t tell if they were supposed to hibernate or not, and whether she woke them up. But dropping the nest and getting it latched on her head would do it.
- Twilight requires a bath in what looks like canned tomato juice to get rid of skunk odor. Does this work?
- Bee/wasp stings are visible on pony coats. And Twilight clearly has no allergy to stings, or she’d probably be dead.
- Twilight is not strong enough to push the snowplow.
- Applejack comments that “She’s awful strong for such a little pony.” To us, though, they look nearly identical in size, which suggests cartoon resolution extends to that as well.
- The way Twilight failed to control the come-to-life spell suggests she isn’t particularly familiar with this branch of magic. She is certainly not seen using it again. However, couldn’t she just push the whole thing telekinetically?… Should be trivial for someone who can pick up and fondle a 20-ton water tank. Why did she decide not to?
- Spike says, “That’s what I’m here for, sister,” though I doubt he actually means it, it’s said more like a form of address.
- Fluttershy says, “My poor little animals’ homes will get flooded if the snow melts too fast.” If anyone wondered why the snow needs to be cleared at all, that’s why: Drainage is not set up to handle melting all of the snow in a single day, but melting everything in a single day is what the spec calls for. I suspect that the season transitions are tuned to be sharp historically, the snow that is not melted in a controlled fashion flash-melts the next day, and being late with the Winter Wrap-Up results in a flood. Planting seeds as early as possible is also a major concern.
- Notice that even though Fluttershy is not the animal team leader, she is the one complaining about possible flooding.
- Ponyville was late with the Wrap-Up for three years running, if not longer.
- “Caramel lost the grass seeds again, didn’t he?” Caramel did it at least once before.
- “Ditzy Doo accidentally went north to get the southern birds!” Unfortunately the scene does not show who Ditzy Doo is. Most people think it’s Derpy, but that is not a clear statement. According to Rainbow, Ditzy Doo went west last year, but that still doesn’t clearly identify the lady.
- Twilight uses what appears to be a sound amplification spell on a bird to get attention. The bird’s reaction is interesting: It makes an annoyed pose, but does not fly away.
- Twilight does introduce some conveyor-belt style optimizations, particularly where snow clearing and seed planting is accomplished in a single pass. Notice that the very idea of such optimizations is relatively new to humans – first mass use of these is typically credited to Henry Ford in 1913. Mass cloud clearing with what looks like a horizontal shockwave-tornado is particularly notable. Mayor Mare is quite correct in crediting Twilight with the success of this operation.
3. They actually keep quite long.
Mayor Mare is carrying… Apples. No idea where she got them or what exactly is she planning to do with them. Hopefully, these are last year’s apples3 meant to feed the participants.
- Even with these optimizations, completing the process requires the entire night.
- Twilight, apparently, teleports into the vest offered to her.
4. Because nobody tried to fish him out before the ice melted.
Spike fell into the water once the ice melted and looks like he caught a cold. Dragons can catch colds. Dragons can swim.4
- Spike is wearing slippers, which I don’t think turn up again.
Chronologically, the position of this one is set rigidly: Because Twilight has clearly never experienced Winter Wrap Up the earth pony way, it’s the end of Twilight’s first winter in Ponyville. Nothing ever happens in Ponyville in winter, except Hearth’s Warming and… this.
If I recall correctly. There where two ponies, one was Ditzy and the other was either Derpy or she had a different name. Think this is where some of the stories that Derpy has a twin sister come from. Cant recall.
Also tomato juice will not remove skunk odor, it will mask it. You need to bath in hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. I think thats what it was. Would have to google.
4542886
I think the idea that there were two of them is derived from the fact that soon after her initial cross-eyed appearance, Derpy’s puppet got corrected. Then they had to break it again after the public outcry.
To determine if there really are two of them we’d have to catch and identify the appearances by cutie mark.
I notice that she's putting on the saddle without her magic.
I think that, right there, is the real reason it's considered impolite to watch a pony putting on or taking off clothes (even though going in public clothed or naked are both equally acceptable). Earth ponies and pegasi, unless they're rich enough to afford servants, can only put clothes on by rolling on the ground and looking ridiculous. The taboo against watching an earth pony or pegasus changing came about to protect their dignity. And then it spread to unicorns, because most of them aren't jerks and would rather not flaunt their telekinetic privilege.
Yes they are.
Which, in retrospect, isn't surprising, because we saw an outhouse in "The Last Roundup".
It's a very common folk remedy. But apparently it doesn't really get rid of the odor, but just exploits olfactory fatigue to make the victim think they can't smell it anymore.
4542895
Probably!
Considering that nobody comments afterwards, I expect she gave up and used magic to get cleaned up. And that’s what prompted her to try the come-to-life spell immediately after.
If it helps, way back in the day, Faust said Celestia did most of the raising of Spike. It's as good an explanation as any, I'd say.
Would you believe, back in the halcyon days of summer 2011, I actually found this episode boring? But in retrospect, it's quite admirable for how much world and character development it crams into a mere 22 minutes. Equestria, it seemed, was a living, breathing world, and we were taking our first steps into it. Now I understand why people think so highly of it.
4542886
4542891
As far as Ditzy Doo's identity... During the song reprise, this is the pony who leads the migratory birds back. And she's literally Derpy's model—same cutie mark and everything—but with a purple mane and tail, and underped eyes. There are a few ways you can interpret this:
● Purple Derpy clearly can't be Ditzy Doo. Since Ditzy flew south, Ponyville must have sent somepony else north to get the birds, rather than waiting for Ditzy to return—this is that somepony else.
● Purple Derpy is the real Ditzy Doo, because even when the show says the ponies are being efficient, they frequently aren't. Or perhaps, by the time everyone realized Ditzy's mistake, she had already returned. And everyone had a really good feeling that she would finally get it right this time.
● "Derpy" is just Ditzy Doo's nickname. She mistook south for north because of a higher-dimensional error in her compass. After realizing her mistake, she used her special talent for extradimensional travel to get north faster than would have been normally possible, and she got into bizarre adventures along the way, one of which temporarily dyed her mane and tail purple.
You know, as long as we're on the subject of Derpy: Are you watching out for Dinky Doo appearances? I think it would be very illuminating to track which adults she appears with the most.
Makes sense. We've seen that her sister Maud is also a very good skater. Skating ponds are easy to make: they don't need to be more than a few inches deep, and flooding a field in sub zero weather would do it.
Old folk remedy in the States, at least. And no, it doesn't work very well. Also, it turns white fur pink.
1940's wise-guy slang, applicable to any female. Likewise, "brother." Probably comes from watching a lot of Bugs Bunny cartoons.
I though she just squeezed the crap out of it!
At the very least, wooden blocks (as in block-and-tackle) were produced this way for the British navy in the early 19th century. Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, (18th c) describes the making of pins in a similar way. Don't know why the technique didn't spread more widely earlier.
Show-off!
4542907
It doesn’t. Troll me once, shame on you. Troll me twice, I don’t count your word as canon anymore. :)
4542917
Actually, there are five ponies with that mark in this episode:
The actual Derpy, blond with yellow eyes.
Light blue hair
Purple hair
Blond with blue eyes
Red hair
And maybe there are a few more I haven’t caught.
That’s a lot of adventures, and a lot more than you wrote about. Write more. :)
Not really, but now I will.
4542936
Yes, but wouldn’t the scattered medium-sized rocks be a problem? They’d have to keep a patch clear for it, I suppose…
…or maybe they are a problem, and that’s why they skate so well: lots of experience not falling down because of skating into a rock pocking above the ice.
The bird is a little too forgiving if so. :)
Actually, upon further examination of screencaps on Derpibooru, there are three different Derpy recolors who show up in "Winter Wrap Up" and apparently no other episodes:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/11/18/155660__safe_rainbow+dash_fluttershy_derpy+hooves_image+macro_text_headcanon_family_winter+wrap+up_ditzy+doo.png
CLEARLY, Ditzy "Derpy" Doo accidentally stumbled upon some cursed artifact that split her into three different ponies, each based on different aspects of her personality. And then all three of her got shanghaied into helping with Winter Wrap Up. So she had to balance her triple WWU duties with finding and reuniting the three shards of the magic macguffin to restore her to normal.
4542976
See my comment above, they missed one. :)
I did my own first this time, too. Some of it, you covered. some, you didn't. I'll pick out the more important ones; I recommend reading it anyway if you've time.
♪"Three months of winter coolness, and awesome holidays"
hypothesis: Skates channel hoof-expelled magic; Pies can use ice-skates on rocks in the same way they can jackhammer barehoof.
I prefer to think that's a Rarity spell of Fastener-Free Donning. Did you see Twi's horn light up there? I don't recall it doing so.
4542936
I was under the impression this technique was called the assembly line…especially as there are no actual mechanical conveyors used in Twi's design.
The Venetian Arsenal did it in 1104, though nobody else really did in W-civ for a loooong time, says Wikipedia.
but that Twi doesn't means she missed a meeting or is too late to this meeting (and she does seem to be late! How unusual.)
In clearing the clouds, RD leads a Cloud-drill-nado formation, which has amazing clearing area-effect and speed. wouldn't that be nice in the Crystalling…?
4542907
Funny you say that when the episode is depicting the ecological equivalent of an iron lung, isn't it?
4542987
In a moment.
That would work too.
We saw the entire Twilight light up.
Sometimes words fail me.
Good point.
It would also probably require a lot more pegasi than they had. Crystal Empire is quite short on pegasi, and crystal unicorns are pretty much endangered.
My world depends on iron lung
The web of fate is tightly strung…
Except "manual" means "with hands". "Ungular dexterity"?
Since this is an early ep, it's clear Fluttershy hasn't come out of her shell and asserted any sort of role of authority in Ponyville. Everypony might know she's good with animals, but that doesn't make her a team leader.
This suggests that the teleport spell has some sort of built in protection against the possibility of telefrag. The fact that Twilight is so carefree with her teleports (seen variously throughout the series) also seems to suggest this, but teleporting into clothing safely would be impossible unless the spell was capable of pushing the clothes out. This is important, because I've seen at least one or two stories where a unicorn killed themselves by carelessly teleporting into an object.
It doesn't say anything very certain about how the teleport spell actually works, of course - there are simply too many options.